1942: Palestine

The year 1942 passed peacefully in Palestine, yet the serious fundamental problems which were at the bottom of the revolutionary disorders that had upset life in Palestine for the last five years, were in no way nearer solution. On the one hand the Zionists emphasized the tragedy which had befallen the Jews in all the European countries under German domination, and demanded the wide opening of Palestine to Jewish mass immigration, and the creation in Palestine of a Jewish commonwealth. They centered their efforts on influencing the British and American governments and people to that end. Especially they urged the formation of a Jewish army in Palestine, formed of Palestinian and stateless Jews who would fight on the side of the Allies against Nazi Germany. On the other hand the Arabs were determined to maintain Palestine as an Arab country. They were supported in their demands by the governments and peoples of Saudi Arabia, of Egypt, of Iraq and Syria. They saw in the creation of a Jewish army a dangerous threat to their own position after the war. They reminded the British of the strategic importance of Arab friendship in the Middle East and pleaded before the United Nations the right of the Palestinian Arabs to national self-determination.

Jewish Opposition to Zionism.

While during the war outward peace was preserved in Palestine and revolutionary unrest subsided, both Jewish and Arab parties became more intransigent in their attitude. Some Jewish intellectuals under the leadership of Dr. Judah L. Magnes, President of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, founded a Union Association, opposed to the official Zionist demand for the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish state. The Association regards union between the Jewish and Arab peoples as essential for building up Palestine and for meeting its basic problems. It strives for cooperation between the Jewish and Arab worlds in all branches of life. It demands a government in Palestine based upon equal political rights, this Palestine to form a federative union with the neighboring countries which would guarantee the national rights of all the peoples, and it insists finally that this federation should join a union of all free peoples. This point of view was however strictly rejected by the Zionists.

Participation in War.

On Aug. 6, 1942, the British secretary of war, Sir James Grigg, announced in the British Parliament that a Palestine regiment was to be created at once which would consist of separate Jewish and Arab infantry battalions. This regiment would serve in the Middle East. He declared that there would be no insistence on Arab and Jewish numerical parity. He estimated the number of Palestinian Jews serving with units of the British army in the Middle East at 14,000, and declared that Palestinian and stateless Jews had abundant opportunity to take part in the struggle against the Axis. The newly created Palestine Volunteer Force would be expanded as quickly as arms, equipment, and training facilities became available. In addition establishment of Jewish rural police would be completed by the enrollment of 1,500 additional recruits. The Palestine police force was declared to be a military force for the duration of the war, and liable for employment in the defense of Palestine.

Jewish Immigration.

Jewish immigration was of course very much hindered both by war and transport difficulties. The British White Paper, governing the policy applied in Palestine, and issued on May 17, 1939, had limited the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine to 75,000 for the next five years. According to official figures the number of Jewish immigrants between April 1, 1939 and Sept. 30, 1941 amounted to 35,021 (of whom 18,459 had entered the country illegally). Thus as of Oct. 1, 1941, a quota of 39,979 Jewish immigrants could still find admission. The war situation in the Near East made Palestine an important economic base for British and United Nations armies. The many modern industries created by Jewish immigrants in Palestine in recent years were found most useful for supplying some of the needs of the armed forces. The economic situation among the Jewish settlers was therefore satisfactory. Measures were adopted by the Government to insure the equitable distribution of essential foodstuffs and to prevent excessive speculation and rise in prices. Maximum prices were established for cereals, sugar, butter, fats and beverages. The new legislation was intended to protect cultivator and consumer alike. Energetic measures were taken to increase agricultural production, so as to make Palestine more self-sufficient and to economize on British shipping space.

Finance and Legislation.

The year's expenditure in the Palestine budget was set at £10,514,685. Of this sum £2,207,404 was authorized for police and prisons, £1,409,153 for the Palestine railways and £1,343,545 for public works. Two important pieces of legislation should be mentioned. One concerns the problems of labor in war-time. An order of the High Commissioner issued under defense regulations prohibited strikes and lockouts. Any dispute between workers and employers must be decided by the district commissioner by arbitration and conciliation. A second piece of legislation concerned an advance in local self-government in Palestine. All villages will elect committees to administer problems of local health and well-being.

Terrorism.

The Jewish community in Palestine was greatly disturbed at the beginning of 1942 by the terrorist activities of a small group of extremist Zionist youth who had accepted Fascist ideology, had organized terroristic action against the Arabs and were now in violent opposition to the official Zionist bodies. On Jan. 20, 1942, they engineered a fatal mine explosion in Tel Aviv which took the life of three Jewish police officers. The head of the group, Abraham Stern, was killed while resisting arrest on Feb. 12. Although attempts at overcoming party strife within the Jewish community were not successful, all parties remained united in their demand for a Jewish commonwealth and for Jewish mass immigration.

1941: Palestine

Palestine, a British mandated territory in the Near East, consisting of two parts, the land west of the Jordan, or Palestine proper, and Transjordania, a country stretching east from the Jordan into the desert. Palestine is under direct British administration, a land with an Arab majority, but where under the mandate the immigration of Jews has been facilitated with the view to the building up of a Jewish national home. Transjordania, on the other hand, is an Arab principality under a native ruler, Emir Abdallah, who is assisted by an executive council of ministers and a legislative council of elected deputies. The Arabs in Palestine had frequently revolted against the policy of the mandate to facilitate the building of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The most violent and long-lasting of these revolts occurred in 1936 and lasted until the British statement of policy in May 1939 which declared that it was not part of British policy for Palestine to become a Jewish state, and promised to establish within ten years an independent Arab state and to grant to the population progressively democratic rights of self-government.

Political and Defense Situation.

The outbreak of the war and the large concentration of British troops in Palestine for the protection of the vital imperial routes in the Near and Middle East brought about further pacification, and during 1941 the country was quiet. The same can be said, thanks to the policy of Emir Abdallah, of Transjordania, in spite of the fact that Axis agents tried to foment trouble against Great Britain, particularly at the time when in the neighboring kingdom of Iraq a pro-German government was in control and worked hard to incite the Arabs of all the neighboring lands to go to war against Great Britain. It was then the wise Arab policy of the British Government which forestalled the spread of this dangerous agitation throughout the Arab lands, especially in Transjordania and Palestine.

It also allowed Great Britain to liquidate the pro-German government in Iraq with relatively very small sacrifices, and so to secure peace in Palestine and throughout the Arab lands, which was of fundamental importance to the British at a moment when the Near and Middle East could become the decisive theater of war.

The number of Jews in Palestine was estimated by the government at 456,743 in June 1940, while the Jewish Agency estimated the number of Jews in Palestine on Sept. 30, 1940, at 488,667, or 31 per cent of the settled population of the country. Of this population almost 70 per cent or 328,000 lived in three large cities, 177,000 in Tel Aviv and Jaffa, 82,000 in Jerusalem, and 69,000 in Haifa. (See also RELIGION: Jews.)

On the whole the year was rather uneventful. The attention of Palestine was concentrated on the events of the war which with the struggle in Libya, the German conquest of Crete, and the British occupation of Syria, came relatively near to the frontiers of Palestine. A War Supply Board was appointed on Feb. 26, to organize production in Palestine and to enable the country to make a maximum contribution to the general war-effort. The defense budget for Palestine for the current year was set at £3,654,015, covered by grants-in-aid in the Middle Eastern Services section of the estimates for the British colonial office. The war effort was helped by many of the newly-founded Jewish industries, though some of them were hampered by the lack of certain raw materials. A Transport and Trade Coordination Center, and a new Standing Committee for Commerce and Industry, appointed by the High Commissioner Sir Harold Alfred MacMichael, helped in facilitating the mobilization of the resources of the country for the war effort. For the first time, an income tax was introduced for the fiscal year 1941-2, after a careful study and a lengthy discussion extending for well over a decade. Exempting £250 for bachelors and £400 for married people, there will be a 5 per cent tax as a basic assessment, rising to 30 per cent on incomes over £3,500. According to a provisional estimate only 7,000 people will be liable to the payment of the income tax. Companies will be charged a flat rate of 10 per cent. As the government declared, it hoped by additional taxation to be able to finance the essential social services. It was anxious that in finding additional sources of taxation 'it should be insured that all classes of the people of Palestine shall make a maximum contribution to revenue according to their taxable capacity.... It is generally recognized that the incidence of indirect taxation falls heaviest on the income of the poor and middle class, and this in one of the principal reasons for the present consideration by the government for the imposition of an income tax in Palestine.'

Economic Situation.

The economic position, especially among the Jews, remained critical. Unemployment was widespread. The peace in Palestine made also some collaboration between Arabs and Jews in economic matters possible. This was seen in joint conferences of the citrus growers. The citrus industry, Palestine's most important, in which many Jews had invested large capital sums, was in a most dangerous position and almost threatened with collapse. While the exports for the first quarter of 1940 had amounted to £1,386,665, of which £1,161,545 were citrus fruit, they had fallen in the first quarter of 1941 to £250,625, of which only £7,379 for citrus fruit. The budget for 1940-41 foresaw an expenditure of £8,858,000 as against an income of £4,194,000. The deficit was partly covered by a grant-in-aid from the British Government. The expenditure for the fiscal year 1941-42 reached an all-time high, it was estimated at £10,500,000, of which nearly £2,000,000 was for public works.

At the beginning of the year the general officer in command of the British forces in Palestine and Transjordania was Lieut. Gen. Philip Neame, who was taken prisoner of war in Libya and was replaced by Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, who, in December 1941, was placed in supreme command of the newly formed British Ninth Army to which was entrusted the protection of the British positions in the Middle East. The commanding officer in Palestine became then Maj. Gen. Douglas Fitzgerald McConnel. At the same time, the British High Commissioner for Palestine was authorized to raise a war loan, locally or abroad, either through bonds or through war savings certificates. The Government also began in the late fall a campaign against the sharp rises in commodity prices which had resulted in large scale profiteering. On the whole, the food and supply situation in Palestine remained highly satisfactory, much superior to that existing in European countries, and there was no rationing. Industries founded by Jews in the last years, supplied goods for the amount of almost £3,000,000 to the army. The number of industrial workers employed amounted to 10,500 in July 1941.

Capt. Oliver Lyttleton who is the representative of the British Cabinet for the Near and Middle East and has the rank of Minister of State, visited Palestine in the middle of September, where he discussed the political situation. Before coming to Jerusalem he had gone to Amman, the capital of Transjordania, where he had conferred with the British resident, Alexander Kirkbride, Emir Abdallah, and the prime minister, Tewfik Pasha Abu el-Huda, on the questions of Arab policy and the solution of the Transjordanian and Arab problem within the framework of the declarations and promises made by leading British statesmen. An official statement issued by the Transjordanian administration revealed a unity of views and the expectation that nothing would disturb the implementing of promises and the fulfillment of Arab national aspirations. Britain would assist the Arabs with all her means, as the Anglo-Arab interests in this war were jointly opposed to forces of oppression and tyranny. While many Zionist leaders pressed for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine at the conclusion of this war, others favored the establishment of an autonomous Palestine in which Arab and Jew would live on the basis of equality within an Arab federation. See also IRAQ; SYRIA AND LEBANON.

1940: Palestine

Palestine is a British mandated territory in the Near East, consisting of two parts, the land west of the Jordan, or Palestine proper, which is under direct British administration and where the immigration of Jews is facilitated with a view to the building up of a Jewish national home, and the land east of the Jordan, or Transjordania, which represents an Arab principality under the rule of Emir Abdallah. Palestine had been, in the years from 1936-1939, the scene of a violent Arab national uprising against the British mandate and against the policy of establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine. With the proclamation of the Statement of Policy in May 1939, by the British government, the Arab unrest subsided. The Statement declared that it was not part of British policy for Palestine to become a Jewish state, as that would be contrary to British obligations to the Arabs under the mandate. The British government promised to establish within ten years an independent Arab state and to grant during the transitional period increasing participation of the population in the administration of the country. Jewish immigration was to be regulated in accordance with the policy, and the Statement promised especially to restrict the sale of Arab lands to Jews in certain areas.

The outbreak of the war in the fall of 1939 brought a strong British garrison to Palestine and acted generally as a factor in allaying all unrest. Of the promises of the Statement of Policy, those concerned with self-government, could not be carried through owing to war conditions, but the British government published at the end of February land regulations which prohibited the sale of land to Jews in the hill country of Palestine, with its predominantly Arab population, and restricted it in other parts of the country. In view of the fact that the reports of several expert commissions had indicated that, owing to the natural growth of the Arab population and the steady sale in recent years of Arab lands to Jews, the danger existed of the creation of a landless Arab population, and the government established three zones in Palestine. In Zone A, which included the hill country of Palestine and certain areas in the south where the land available was deemed insufficient for the support of the existing population, the transfer of land to non-Arabs was prohibited save in exceptional cases. In Zone B, which included the plains of Esdraelon and Jezreel, Eastern Galilee, the coastal plain between Haifa and Tantura and certain southern districts, transfer of land to a non-Arab demanded the sanction of the High Commissioner. This sanction will be granted when the transfer of land can be shown to be made either for the purpose of facilitating irrigation, or consolidating or expanding holdings already in the possession of non-Arabs, or if it is made for the purpose of enabling land held in undivided shares to be parceled or in furtherance of some special scheme of development in joint interests of both Arabs and Jews. All land not included in these two zones does not fall under any restriction. This land where transfer to Jewish owners can be carried through without any impediment includes the most important and most fertile parts of Palestine, all municipal areas, the Haifa industrial zone and the coastal plain between Tantura to a line well south of Jaffa.

These regulations of Feb. 28, 1940, were received with satisfaction by the Arabs, but led to violent demonstrations on the part of the Jews in Palestine. Large-scale demonstrations paraded through the streets of Jerusalem and of other cities with large Jewish populations, and ended in violent riots in Jerusalem at the beginning of March, when scores of Jewish demonstrators and British police were injured. The British Labor party opposed the restrictions in a motion before the House of Commons to censure the government, but this motion was defeated on March 6 by 292 to 129 votes, after Malcolm MacDonald, the Colonial Secretary, had pointed out that if the British government had not restricted the sale of land to Jews in Palestine, trouble would have broken out again and might have spread through the Arab world.

This restricting law left the zones where heretofore the Jews had been most active in their work of agricultural colonization open for their further settlement. The entirely non-restricted zone which comprises the most important lands has an extent of 1,300,000 dunam, of which 700,000 are owned by Jews. Zone B. in which acquisition of land is allowed with the consent of the High Commissioner, comprises 1,570,000 dunam, of which 530,000 are in Jewish possession. The restricted land included in Zone A comprises the least fertile parts of the Palestinian soil.

The entrance of Italy into the war, the abandonment of the struggle on the part of France, and the ensuing threatening inclusion of Palestine into the area of immediate warfare brought about a concentration of the attention of the whole population upon the new problems facing Palestine. With the cessation of the Mediterranean traffic, Palestine suffered economically, and the population, Jewish and Arab, had to adapt itself to the new conditions. Several times Italian bombing planes visited Palestine and demanded a heavy toll of life and material damage. The most important raids were one on Sept. 9 against the all-Jewish city of Tel Aviv, north of Jaffa, when mostly Jews were the sufferers, and on Sept. 22 against Haifa, when most of the victims were Arabs. The common danger and the common economic problems brought the Arab and Jewish populations closer together. On April 15 the High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Harold MacMichael, announced that he had secured government approval for assistance to the suffering citrus industry of Palestine, which in former years had occupied the leading position among all exports from the country, and which was now threatened with grave disaster. The war situation strained Palestine's financial resources. The Palestinian budget for the fiscal year running to March 31, 1941, was fixed at an expenditure of £9,659,877, the highest amount in the history of the country. But the country did not show a deficit, in view of the fact that the Palestine government had on April 1, 1940, a cash surplus fund of £3,400,000.

The number of Jewish immigrants during 1939 was estimated at 27,193, of whom 10,823 represented the so-called illegal immigration of refugees who had arrived without authority. The Palestinian government tried to stop illegal immigration into Palestine, but was not successful in that attempt. In April 1940, the government allowed the admission of 9,060 Jews for the following six months. The total number of Jewish immigrants into Palestine in the seven years from 1933 to 1939 amounted to 204,077, of whom 55,329 had come from Germany. (See also JEWS.) The extraordinary conditions of the war produced in Palestine widespread unemployment and much economic suffering. In view of these circumstances the Jewish National Council of Palestine decided at the end of November to create a United National Front to cope with the economic and political problems arising out of the situation.

On Dec. 27 the High Commissioner announced that no new immigration quota would be granted for the period of October 1940 to April 1941. In view of the existing travel difficulties only about 1,300 persons of those to whom immigration permits had been granted for the preceding six months' period had actually immigrated. With the very serious dimensions of unemployment among the Jewish population only replacements for those certificates granted in the preceding period could be given. According to government figures, 28,835 Jews had immigrated between April 1939 to the end of September 1940, while for the whole five years period from April 1939 to March 1944 a maximum of 75,000 had been allowed by the White Paper.

See also articles on ARCHAEOLOGY and ARCHITECTURE.

1939: Palestine

The Arab-Jewish Problem.

The year 1939 started with a conference in London in which the British Government met Arab and Zionist delegates to try to arrive at some settlement of the thorny Palestinian problem. Since the end of the World War, the Zionist aspirations of making Palestine into a Jewish homeland had kept aroused the hostility of the Arab inhabitants of the Holy Land. This hostility had flared up in April 1936 into an open revolt, which had not subsided at the end of 1938 and which had doubled in violence and force. The growing anti-Semitism in Central Europe and the expulsion of Jews from National Socialist Germany had turned increasingly the eyes of the Jews in Germany, Austria, Poland and Rumania on the Holy Land as a possible refuge. Many tens of thousands waited for a possibility of emigration to and settlement in the country, where for the last 20 years through Zionist efforts new cities had arisen, new industries been created and many thousands of acres of land been reclaimed.

At the same time the independent Arabic states—Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia—had taken up with greatest energy the cause of the Palestinian Arabs and had officially informed the British Government of their unreserved support of the demands of the Palestinian Arabs for independence. The head of the Egyptian delegation, Aly Maher Pasha, presented the united Arab view in London. He proposed the complete independence of Palestine under Arab rule, a strong strategic treaty between Great Britain and Palestine, and the freezing of the Jewish National Home at the present extent, but with the enjoyment of full minority rights and cultural autonomy. The legislative assembly of the All-India National Parliament supported this stand and in a resolution on February 10 demanded India's withdrawal from the League of Nations as a protest against Britain's policy in Palestine. On the other hand, the Zionists regarded any solution of the kind proposed by the Arabs as the death sentence upon their hopes for a Jewish State in Palestine and opposed it with the utmost vigor. Under these circumstances there was no common ground for a meeting between the Arabs and the Zionists, and the Conference was to end in a deadlock as far as mutual agreement was concerned.

British Proposals for Settlement.

Under these conditions the British Government had to work out its own proposals. It envisaged the creation of an independent Palestinian State at the end of a transitional period. In this state the whole population of Palestine would enjoy the rights of self-government. The constitution of this state would have to contain adequate safeguards for the interests of minorities, for the sacred character of the Holy Land, and for British strategic interests.

The British intention of ending the mandate aroused a most violent opposition on the part of Zionists. Unrest in Palestine was revived, this time by Zionist terrorists. Some of their bombs took a large toll of Arab life. On the other hand, the British were successful in cleaning up the armed Arab rebel bands and in executing the leader of the rebellion, Abdul Rahim Haj Mohammed.

British policy found its official expression in a Statement of Policy in May 1939, which took up the proposals laid before the Arab and Zionist delegates in March, rejected by both. Thus the British Government was put to the necessity of devising a policy which, consistent with British obligations to Arabs and Jews, would meet the needs of the situation in Palestine and remove the ambiguity contained in the expression 'a National Home for the Jewish people.' The statement declared that it is not part of British policy that Palestine should become a Jewish state, as that would be contrary to British obligations to the Arabs under the mandate. The aim of the administration of the country should be to establish ultimately an independent Palestinian state in which Arabs and Jews share authority in government in such a way that essential interests of each are secured. This independent state was to be established within ten years and during this transitional period Arabs and Jews were to take an increasing part in the administration of the country.

Further, the statement pleaded for a regulation of Jewish immigration to Palestine, according to not only economic but also political considerations; otherwise, the situation in Palestine might become a permanent source of friction among all peoples of the Near and Middle East. The British Government refused to stop Jewish immigration completely, as had been demanded by the Arabs. It proposed instead to allow Jewish immigration during the next five years at a rate which would bring the Jewish population up to approximately one third of the total population of the country. This would allow, according to the estimates of the Government, for the admission of some 75,000 immigrants over the next five years. After this period further Jewish immigration would depend upon the agreement with the Arab population. The British Government declared itself determined to check illegal immigration, for during the last few years a very large number of Jewish immigrants had entered the country illegally. Measures were also envisaged to restrict the sale of Arab lands in certain areas to Jews. At the end of this statement the British Government expressed its conviction that its proposals will not satisfy the partisans of one party or the other in such controversy as the Palestine mandate has aroused. (See also ARABIA; RELIGION: Jews..)

Arab and Jewish Reactions.

This expectation was entirely justified. The British proposals invoked a sharp opposition from Arabs. They fell far short of Arab demands for immediate complete independence, for complete cessation of Jewish immigration and prohibition of land transfer to Jews. But even stronger was the rejection of these proposals by the Zionists. The unrest in Palestine continued. According to official figures for the first quarter of 1939 there were 279 Arabs, 53 Jews and 16 Britons killed. In the month of March alone 110 Arabs and Jews were killed.

Immigration.

To check illegal immigration, the High Commissioner of Palestine announced that the number of Jewish immigrants who succeeded in entering Palestine illegally would be deducted from future immigration quotas. A system of marine police was organized, and heavier penalties for illegal immigration were provided. In spite of these measures immigration continued in large numbers. The legal immigration during the first 6 months of 1939 amounted to 14,130 Jews, of whom 5,608 came from Germany. At the end of June 1939, the population of Palestine was estimated at 1,015,000 Arabs, 460,000 Jews and 28,000 others. According to this figure the Jewish population amounted to 30 per cent as against 17 per cent by the census in 1931. During the intervening eight years the Jewish population in Palestine had grown by 167 per cent, whereas in the same period the Arab population had grown only 22 per cent. The total population of Palestine was estimated at 1,503,000 as against 1,074,000 in 1931.

Arab Demands.

At the beginning of May, Arab representatives from Palestine and neighboring Arab states issued a statement in Cairo demanding the establishment of a Republic of Palestine in three years. As a first step they proposed to abolish the post of the British High Commissioner. They suggested instead the appointment of an English Premier to the Palestinian Government to be followed after three years by a President, to be elected as the head of the Palestinian Republic. The Arabs agreed to a quota of 10,000 Jewish immigrants annually for the next seven and one half years. They demanded that Palestine become independent after ten years without any condition of a previous Arab-Jewish agreement.

Demonstrations against British Statement of Policy.

The middle of May saw a general strike and powerful demonstrations of the Jewish population in Palestine against the British Statement of Policy. Encounters between the police and the demonstrators resulted in a number of casualties. A number of shooting and bombing outrages against Arabs followed and were ascribed to the activities of an extremist Zionist group, the Revisionists. On June 14, the Palestinian Government made public the new schedule for immigration for the period of the five months from May to September, and fixed the number of Jewish immigrants for this period at 7,850. Among the Arabs a group, headed by Nashashibi, was ready to accept the British Statement of Policy as a basis for further negotiations and to continue cooperation with Great Britain. The majority of the Arabs, however, followed the lead of the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem, whom they still regarded as their national leader, and rejected the British policy in Palestine, demanding full and unconditional independence and elected democratic institutions after a transitional period. Toward the end of June terrorism by small extremist Zionist groups increased to such an extent that Jewish notables joined in a public denunciation of the inciters of these acts of assassination. But the growing international tension and the fear that the Mediterranean might become upon the outbreak of war a decisive battlefield overshadowed all the more local events.

Work of the Zionist Organization.

In spite of all the political troubles and the continuing unrest, the constructive work of the Zionist organization went ahead. The number of immigrants did not diminish. Many, driven in greatest despair from the lands of their birth, unable to receive permission to enter Palestine legally, nor being allowed entrance to any other country, wandered for many weeks in small boats from port to port and from island to island in the Mediterranean trying to find a chance to slip illegally into Palestine, which appeared to them the only refuge. New land was acquired by the Zionist land funds and by private individuals. New agricultural settlements were opened, the existing industries were consolidated, building activity in the cities expanded, and some of the larger industrial and commercial ventures showed most promising returns.

Reaction of Mandates Commission of the League of Nations to British Policy.

Meanwhile the British Government had a difficult task to justify its policy before the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations. The British Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald, tried to explain his country's policy in a broadcast to the United States from Geneva on June 20. He assured his listeners of the absolute impartiality of the mandatory power between the conflicting claims of Arabs and Jews. 'On the one hand,' he said, 'there are the Jewish people who many centuries ago inhabited Palestine, but who since then, save for a comparative handful, have been scattered over the face of the earth. To them we promised the establishment by immigration and land settlement of a national home in Palestine. On the other hand, there are the Arabs who have been in undisturbed occupation of Palestine for the last 1,300 years. We assured them that Jewish development in their country would only be permitted in so far as it did not prejudice the rights and position of the Arabs.' For the past twenty years the Zionists have been helped to return in hundreds of thousands and to reclaim the ancient land. But the Arabs had not become reconciled; they preferred 'freedom, as would any other people in their place,' to the material benefits brought to them by Jewish immigration. Although the Arab revolt has been 'disgraced' by many acts of the 'worst banditry,' it also 'has borne undeniably the marks of a genuine patriotic movement.' The Colonial Secretary claimed that the British Statement of Policy of May 17 was a successful attempt to guarantee to Arabs and Jews in their common country the right to live according to their own traditions and genius. The Mandates Commission of the League of Nations was, however, not convinced that the British plan for Palestine really did solve the Palestinian problem. In the middle of August the report of the Mandates Commission was published revealing that four out of seven members considered the British Statement of Policy a violation of the provisions of the Palestine Mandate. (See LEAGUE OF NATIONS.)

Zionist Congress.

At the same time the Zionist Congress met at Geneva under the leadership of the President of the Zionist organization, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, and voiced again the most determined and energetic protest against any restriction of Jewish immigration and against the whole policy of the British Government as outlined in the White Paper of May 17. The approaching culmination of the conflict between Germany and Poland forced the Congress to conclude its work prematurely.

Effect of the War.

The outbreak of the European War changed the situation in Palestine. The Arab population backed the democratic powers, and the sympathies of the Jewish population naturally lay in the same direction. The internal situation was eased, some of the urgent problems were left to be solved after the war. The great influx of refugees without any means rendered the economic position more difficult. The fact that Italy has not joined in the war has so far kept Palestine at peace. But the possibility of a German or Soviet push into the Near East or of Italy's participation in the war has turned Palestine into a most important strategic point for the defense of British interests in the Near East and for the safeguarding of her oil supply from Iraq, which is conducted by pipe lines to the Palestinian port of Haifa. See also INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES.

1938: Palestine

The Arab revolt which started in April 1936, not only continued during 1938, but gained in intensity. It may be said that during 1938 the whole Arab population of the country, either out of conviction or by pressure from the organized nationalistic revolt, joined the forces of the revolution against the British mandate, and against what the Arabs considered the danger of transforming Palestine into a Jewish country. A consequence of this situation was, that during the year large parts of Palestine passed under the administration of the revolutionary government, which in many cities and especially in the mountainous districts of the country, replaced the British administration.

Under these circumstances the Palestine Government under High Commissioner Sir Harold MacMichael found it most difficult to reestablish peace. The British Government in London proceeded with its policy of trying to find a solution to the thorny Palestinian problem where the aspirations and demands of the Arab people and of the Zionist movement were apparently of a contradictory and mutually exclusive character. In July 1937 the British Government had accepted the proposal for a partition of Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state, and a British mandated territory, as set forth in the report of the Royal Commission, and had promised to present to Parliament a definite scheme after adequate inquiry. At that time it had regarded 'a solution on the lines of partition the best and most hopeful solution of what the mandatory power itself is convinced is, in fact, a deadlock.' On January 4th, 1938, a new Commission was appointed under the chairmanship of Sir John Woodhead, to proceed to Palestine and to recommend, taking into account any representations of the communities in Palestine and Trans-Jordan, such boundaries for the proposed Arab and Jewish areas, and the enclaves to be retained permanently or temporarily under British Mandate, as will afford a reasonable prospect of the eventual establishment, with adequate security, of self-supporting Arab and Jewish State, and which will necessitate the inclusion of the fewest possible Arabs and Arab enterprises in the Jewish area and vice versa.

The Woodhead Report.

This Palestine Partition Commission spent over three months in Palestine, where they took evidence from British and Jewish witnesses. As Arabs boycotted the Commission, no Arab witnesses came forward to give evidence. The Commission submitted its report in October 1938. The majority expressed itself in favor of a curtailment of the proposed Jewish state to the lands really inhabited by a Jewish population, mainly therefore the land of the coastal area between Tel Aviv and the Carmel Ridge. On the other hand it proposed that the northern territory of Galilee and the southern district, largely desert, be retained under British mandate. But the Commission came to the general conclusion that any plan of partition would suffer under very serious disadvantages. It recognized 'that there is a deep-seated hostility to partition among the Arab population of Palestine, and that the plan recommended by the Royal Commission would lead to an outbreak of general rebellion which could only be put down by stern and perhaps prolonged military measures.' The Commission felt unable to recommend boundaries for the proposed areas which would give a reasonable prospect of the eventual establishment of self-supporting Arab and Jewish states. On the strength of this report the British Government reached the conclusion that the political, administrative and financial difficulties involved in the proposal to create independent Arab and Jewish states inside Palestine were so great that this solution of the problem was impracticable.

The British Government announced therefore, in November 1938, that it would continue to assume responsibility for the government of the whole of Palestine and try to find alternative means for meeting the difficulties of the situation. 'It is clear that the surest foundation for peace and progress in Palestine would be an understanding between the Arabs and the Jews, and His Majesty's Government is prepared in the first instance to make a determined effort to promote such an understanding.' To this end the Government issued invitations to the Palestinian Arabs and to the Governments of all the Arab states, as well as to the Jewish Agency, to send representatives to London to confer there with the British Government on the future policy of Palestine, including the question of immigration to Palestine. The British Government hoped that a decision would be reached at an early date. If the London discussions, foreseen in this declaration of policy, should not produce agreement within a reasonably brief period of time, the British Government promised to make its own decision in the light of its examination of the problem and of the discussions in London, and to announce the policy which it proposed to pursue. Thus the year 1938 left the Palestinian problem as completely unsettled as it had been since the outbreak of the Arab revolt in April 1936.

The Arab Revolt during 1938.

The beginning of the year witnessed ever-increasing manifestations of racial hostility, violence and widespread disorder in Palestine. The stern measures which the British Government had taken in 1937 to suppress the revolution seemed on the contrary to fan the fire of revolt. This revolt developed during 1938 on an unprecedented scale, until it embraced the whole Arab population of Palestine, deeply affecting the Arabs of the neighboring countries, and increasing the intense hatred and bitterness prevailing in the Holy Land.

To enforce the unity of the Arab revolutionary movement, of which the generally recognized leader was the Mufti, Hai Amin el Husseini, who had been exiled in 1937, the Arabs exercised, especially during the second half of 1938, a campaign of intimidation and terrorist action against those leaders who disagreed with the policy of the Mufti. Several Arabs were killed by terrorists. On the other hand some of the Zionists resorted to acts of retaliation against the Arabs, and during several weeks retaliatory assassinations of Arabs by Zionists, especially in the cities of Jerusalem and Haifa, were not infrequent. Some of the outrages against the Arab civilian population, like the famous explosion in Haifa of July 6th, 1938, which claimed many victims, caused widespread commotion, but the actual perpetrators remained unknown. From July 1 to October 25, the list of people killed in Palestine reached not less than 1,308. Of these, 1,057 were Arabs, 211 were Jews and 40 were British.

In the fall the Government took still stronger measures against the Arab uprising. Not less than 7,800 Jews were enlisted as special policemen, replacing Arab policemen in many strategic points and patrolling and guarding all Jewish settlements. Meanwhile, outside of a few large towns and outside of the Jewish colonies, civil administration completely disappeared and the revolutionary government of the Arabs was in control of the largest area of the country. As a report to The New York Times of October 2 pointed out, 'the rebel successes and the repressive measures to which the Government had had to resort had united the Arabs as never before.' It was no longer the Arab townsmen who dominated the Arab movement, but the Arab country people. Traffic on the roads and on the railways was mostly suspended or only carried on at great risk, communications by telephone and telegraph became entirely uncertain, the ordinary police control and public works ceased. Even whole cities including the old city of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus and others, were for a shorter or a longer period exclusively controlled by the rebels. To mark their new national unity and determination, the Arabs of Palestine, men and women, Mohammedans and Christians, gave up the customary headdress of the tarboosh or the European headdress, and instead all accepted the traditional national headdress of the Arabian peasants at the behest of the rebel leaders. The Palestine Government had constructed with the help of Jewish workers a unique, strongly-fortified wall of barbed wire, completely separating Palestine from Syria, an unprecedented sort of separation of neighboring countries. In spite of that, the contact between the Palestinian Arabs and the Arabs of neighboring countries remained as intense as before. It was also frequently reported that the Palestinian Arabs were supported by Germany and Italy, partly by the supply of armaments and munitions and partly by the cooperation of foreign instructors.

On October 11 an Arab Interparliamentary Congress for Palestine concluded its session in Cairo, and expressed the aroused interest of the Arabs in Egypt, Iraq, and Syria, and of their Governments in the cause of the Palestinian Arabs. The Egyptian Government supported openly the cause of Arab nationalism, and the President of the Egyptian Chamber of Deputies presided over the Congress. The Egyptian King, believed by many to have aspirations to the dignity of a recreated Caliphate, expressed his warm sympathies for the Palestinian Arabs. As mentioned above, the British Government, in its November declaration, sent invitations to the Governments of Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Trans-Jordan to participate in the planned Arab-Jewish Conference in London, to discuss the problems of Palestine and of Jewish immigration. The above named Governments accepted the invitation. A formal invitation was sent also to the King of Yeman, but no reply had been received at the close of 1938.

The British Government ordered also the release of the five Palestinian Arab leaders who had been held as prisoners on the Seychelles Islands. They were not allowed, however, to return to Palestine, but were expected as Arab representatives at the London Conference. Among these five leaders were Dr. Hussein Khalidi who until his arrest had been Mayor of Jerusalem, and Ahmad Hilmi Pasha, the general manager of the Arab Bank in Jerusalem and the leading financial expert of the Arabs. The British Government declared that it would not allow the former Mufti of Jerusalem to represent the Arabs at the conversations in London. There is no doubt, however, that the Arab representatives at the Conference will be largely dominated by the spirit of uncompromising nationalism, as expressed by the Mufti, and that their program will insist upon a stoppage of Jewish immigration to Palestine. On the other hand the Zionists insist on opening wide the gates of Palestine to Jewish immigration, and do not wish to agree, under any condition, to a restriction of the Jews in Palestine to a minority position in the country. Under these conditions, there is very little prospect for a negotiated solution of the Palestine problem at the London Conference.

Meanwhile at the end of October the British Government concentrated a force of more than twenty thousand soldiers, with many airplanes and tanks, in Palestine and started the reconquest of the country. The Arab armed forces under the command of General Abdul Rahim Haj Mohammed, a former Turkish army officer of high position, were estimated at about twenty-five thousand men. The military command of the Arab revolutionary forces had well-equipped services and issued decrees and proclamations like a government, and its orders were generally obeyed throughout Palestine. The British troops proceeded to clear the larger cities of the occupying rebels and their rule. In spite of the successes of the army and of the heavy losses inflicted upon the Arab troops, peace was by no means restored at the end of 1938, and although all the highways were heavily patrolled by armored cars, frequent acts of isolated terrorism and guerilla warfare still continued to make the Holy Land unsafe.

The Jewish Position.

During all these difficult months the Jewish settlers in Palestine continued their work of construction, and although naturally the standards of life were lowered and the pace of numerical and economic expansion slowed down, the Jewish position was nevertheless not only maintained but much strengthened. The immigration of Jews into Palestine continued at the rate of about 15,000 a year, which of course marked a great decline compared with the record figure of 62,000 in 1935. In October 1938 the Government announced that Jewish immigration to Palestine would be continued for the six months period beginning October 1, on the same basis that prevailed for the six months ending September 30. Thus the Government refused to accept the Arab demand to stop Jewish immigration, but on the other hand refused Jewish demands for increased immigration in accordance with the need of so many refugees from Nazi terror in Central Europe. According to the new immigration schedule, 2,000 capitalists, meaning persons in possession of $5,000 or more and 1,000 workers without capital and accompanied by their wives and children, were to be admitted during the next six months, as well as 800 dependents other than wives and children.

The number of Jewish unemployed was relatively small. A surprisingly large number of new agricultural settlements were established, which absorbed about 2,000 people, and valuable tracts of land were acquired for new settlement. The all-Jewish City of Tel Aviv grew rapidly, and its new port outdid the old neighboring port of Jaffa and progressed in almost geometrical proportion. It gave employment to about 1,500 Jewish workers, and accelerated the development of a Jewish merchant fleet. About 8,500 Jews were enrolled as special constables and supernumeraries, so that there were officially about 10,000 Jews under arms, apart from the Jewish police. Jewish unemployed were also employed by the Government for its large defense work, especially for the building of the northern wall, the so-called Tegart's wall, which separates Palestine from Syria. The large Jewish orange groves which formerly had employed Arab labor to a certain extent, now employ exclusively Jewish labor. So it may be said that the Jewish settlement weathered very well the storm of the difficult year of terror, unrest and civil war. On the other hand Arab economic life was completely disorganized, the suffering of the masses was very great, and the number of persons killed and wounded on the Arab side was several times that on the Jewish side. For November alone casualties were estimated at 197 persons killed, of whom 174 were Arabs, 13 Jews and 11 British.

At the beginning of October it was generally feared in Jewish circles that the British Government would yield to the Arab demands and close Palestine, at least for a transitional period, to Jewish immigration and that it might abandon the Balfour Declaration. It was the pressure of Jewish and general public opinion, especially in the United States, which prevented the British Government from taking the envisaged steps, or so it appears. Large sections of American Jewry asked the Department of State to intercede with the British Government, and on October 14 Secretary of State Cordell Hull issued a statement in which he expressed American sympathy for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Although, as it was declared, the American Government had no legal right to interfere, as long as American interests were not touched, public opinion in America generally backed the attitude taken by President Roosevelt of a moral obligation not to abandon the project of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, especially at a time of so great a pressure upon all countries to facilitate Jewish immigration. There is no doubt that the sentiment of the American public and of the American Government carried great weight with the British Government in its determination to continue Jewish immigration into Palestine, and not to alter, for the time being, the basic principles of the Palestine mandate, thereby refusing to accept the Arab demands for an abolition of the mandate and for the establishment of an elected National Government in Palestine.

On the other hand the British Government felt itself unable to authorize any great alteration in the existing rate of immigration, as it would prejudice its position in the forthcoming discussion with Arabs and Jews. The Jewish Agency had demanded an additional immigration of 10,000 young German Jews into Palestine. The British Government did not immediately authorize this additional immigration. It stressed the fact that the question of Jewish immigration would be one of the major points in the London discussion scheduled to begin during January 1939. Thus the British Government maintained a half-way position between Arab and Zionist demands, and is looking forward to the possibility of a successful outcome of the envisaged Conference, although most observers regard this possibility as very slight.